The present invention relates generally to a foldable playyard and more particularly, to an improved self-lock hub unit of lower frame of a foldable playyard.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,037 has disclosed a lower frame structure of a foldable playyard, which included a hub assembly. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the hub assembly included a substantially hollow cylindrical body 110, four coupling portions 112a-d spaced apart from each other and non-axially extending outwardly from the hub body for receiving hub legs, and locking means rotatably coupled the hub body for operablely cooperating with the coupling portions to lock the hub legs in an erected position, wherein each of the coupling portions comprises a reversed U-shaped cross-section, an elongated slot formed in both side walls thereof, and an opening formed in a top wall thereof.
The locking means included a bias spring 120 disposed in hub body; a latch member 130 rotatably coupled to the hub body and arranged such that it is biased toward a lock position by the bias spring, wherein the latch member has two substantially L-shaped arms formed at two substantially positions of a lower face of a periphery portion thereof and each of the L-shaped arm has a vertical portion and a horizontal portion which will be inserted into the slots of corresponding coupling portion of the hub body as the latch member is biased toward the lock position by the bias spring to lock the hub legs in the erected position; and a knob 140 coupled to the latch member to turn the latch member toward an unlock position such that the horizontal portion of the L-shaped arm withdrawn from the slot and the hub legs may pivot from the erected position to the collapsed position.
Although the hub assembly 10 disclosed in the above-mentioned ""037 is able to perform a locking/unlocking function of the lower frame of the playyard, it is inconvenient to perform the unlocking operation because it takes two steps to do it, i.e., first turn the knob and then lift the hub assembly, and thus may cause confusion.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide an improved self-lock hub unit of a lower frame of a foldable playyard, of which the locking/unlocking operation may be performed in one step.
To achieve this and other advantages and according to the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the hub unit of the lower frame of the playyard includes a body having a plurality of slots formed at a periphery thereof for receiving tube legs of the playyard and a vertical cavity formed at the center thereof; an actuating member which is vertically movably received in the central cavity; two sliding engaging assemblies movably mounted two oppositely positioned tube legs respectively, each sliding engaging assembly having a first member, a second member coupled to the first member for movably coupling the first member to one of the tube legs, and a biasing member disposed in the tube leg to bias the first and second members toward an open end of the tube leg, wherein the two oppositely positioned tube legs are rotatably received in two radially opposite slots of the body respectively; two locking means formed on the body at positions corresponding to the sliding engaging assemblies respectively and having a guiding portion and an engaging portion; and a strap coupled to the actuating member; wherein the actuating member, the sliding engaging assemblies, and locking means are arranged such that while the tube legs are rotated from vertical position to horizontal position, the second member of the sliding engaging assembly will contact with and guided by the guiding portion of the locking means to engage with the engaging portion of the locking means and thereby locking the tube legs in horizontal position with at least one portion of the first member of the sliding engaging assembly protruding into the central cavity; and while the actuating member is moved upward by pulling the strap, the actuating member will engage with the at least one portion of the first member that protruding into the cavity and push the first member to cause the second member disengaging with the engaging portion of the locking means.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a self-lock hub unit of a lower frame of a playyard comprises a body having a plurality of slots formed at a periphery thereof for receiving tube legs of the playyard and a rectangular recess formed at the center portion and defined by two opposite long-side walls and two short-side walls; two guiding plates disposed at the central portion of the recess and parallel with the short-side walls, the guiding plates being arranged such that they are spaced apart from each other so as to define a cavity therebetween; an actuating member which is movably received in the cavity; two sliding engaging assemblies movably mounted two oppositely positioned tube legs respectively, each sliding engaging assembly having a first member, a second member coupled to the first member for movably coupling the first member to one of the tube legs, and a biasing member disposed in the tube leg to bias the first and second members toward an open end of the tube leg, wherein the two oppositely positioned tube legs are rotatably received in two radially opposite slots of the body respectively; two locking means formed on the body at positions corresponding to the sliding engaging assemblies respectively and having a guiding portion and an engaging portion; and a strap coupled to the actuating member, wherein the actuating member, the sliding engaging assemblies, and locking means are arranged such that while the tube legs are pivoted from a vertical position to a horizontal position, the second member of the sliding engaging assembly will contact with and guided by the guiding portion of the locking means to engage with the engaging portion of the locking means and thereby locking the tube legs in an erected position; and while the actuating member is moved upward by pulling the strap, the actuating member will push the second member to disengage with the engaging portion of the locking means.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.